Bolognesse twist

Balsamic vinegar, chopped chicken liver, courgettes, use lamb or pork mince instead, fennel. Add bacon, you can't go wrong there ;)

Loads of stuff you can do with a ragu :)
 
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Jonny69 said:
Add chilli and serve with rice.
Click to expand...
Made me laugh.

That 'bolognese' is all wrong. Without starting an argument about what a 'real' bolognese means, this is how I cook it. It's fairly authentic and so cheap and easy I don't see why anyone would use a ready-made sauce. Most of the time I cook it like this but sometimes it's nice to do an Americanized version that has more tomatoes (tomato paste) and a bit of chilli for a kick.

- Firstly fry slowly some diced garlic, onion, celery and carrot.
- Once this is all softened, remove and set aside.
- *Fry mince on a high heat to get some good colour and flavour.
- Add your veg back in to the pan and turn to a medium-low heat.
- Add a tin of tomatoes, a glass of wine or a splash of instant chicken/beef stock if you want.
- If you're using dried herbs add them now. Add a splash of Worcestershire sauce too.
- Simmer away on a low heat for as long as you possibly can. The longer the better.
- Season with loads of pepper, and salt.
- 5mins before serving stir in a tablespoon-ish of grated parmesan. Turn the pan off and let that thicken the sauce.
- Serve with spaghetti.

See. Easy. :)

*If you want to add pancetta/bacon this is where you can fry it up first
 
Celery and bacon. I know it sounds odd but the long cooking time makes the celery soft and it soaks up some of the flavours too.
 
Worcester sauce 1 tbsn and carrots are good in a bolognese.
Make sure you cook your puree out properly otherwise it tastes bitter and put the garlic in before leaving to simmer to get the best out of it, oh and use olive oil and fresh tomatoes and herbs, it all makes a difference.
 
A nice twist on the classic is to use lamb mince and add loads of mint. It's kind of weird but bloody tasty.
 
Simply cos I make larger batches for during the week/ lazy days:

1000g Lean mince (beef usually)
1 Onion
1 Large Carrot
2 Cans chopped Tomatoes
a sprinkle of either fresh mixed or dried mixed herbs
1 small jar of sundried pesto
6 slices of unsmoked bacon chopped up/ diced
2 cloves of fresh crushed diced garlic
2 Tablespoons tomato Puree
Splash of red or white wine


Chop up garlic, onions & bacon, slow fry until bacon is cooked.
Add the mince and cook until browned and cooked.
Add the two cans of tomatoes and the jar of tomato pesto.
Mix up on a low/medium heat.
Add chopped carrot
Add herbs, salt and pepper (season to taste)
Add the splash of wine.

Leave to simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally.
 
Lardons are great in Bolognesse and don't use jar stuff it's pointless.

Very simple
Can tomatoes
Onion diced
garlic
oregano
stock or stock cube
seasoning

More complex also add extremely finely diced
carrots
celery
some red wine
Lardons
 
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